Milk-sized sensors. They do a planet good.
We'll be able to better understand our planet... and ourselves.
SBQuantum, with an assist from the Canadian Space Agency (CSA), has been awarded its second contract, worth roughly $1M, with the European Space Agency (ESA). The objective this time is to deploy milk-carton-sized quantum magnetometers (400 Hz bandwidth, 200 Picotesla accuracy) using cube satellites, then use lasers with large diamonds to monitor ocean temperatures and current to achieve a better understanding of their knock-on effects.
You’ll often find the phrase “climate change” associated with this, but let’s peel off an abstraction layer. This press release, then embargoed, happened to arrive mere days after a double typhoon struck the Philippines. That’s a bit of a misnomer, quite frankly, because the second one was a supertyphoon. They made landfall less than a week apart from each other, each bringing flooding, destruction, and injuries, as well as loss of life currently estimated in the hundreds.
I raise this point because the technology will hopefully extend beyond long-term climate projections to near and present dangers to human lives and property.
The technology, by the way, can also be used to monitor the accelerating changes to Earth’s magnetic field. In fact, SBQuantum is a “MagQuest Challenge” finalist, and will soon see one of its sensors launched into space as a result. A commonly cited application for this is navigation in GPS-denied environments.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m craving a glass of milk….
Filed under: Quantum Technology • Quantum Sensors • Space Technology • Earth Observation • Remote Sensing • Climate Technology • Environmental Monitoring • Geophysics • Satellite Technology • Natural Disasters
Image generated by OpenAI’s DALL·E.